More about Mistborn

Posted by me on Sunday, the 24th day of June, anno domini 2007 at 12:08 AM, local time.

So, I finished reading Mistborn yesterday and was very happy to find that it is pretty much one of the best books I have read this year to date (as I suspected it would be earlier). It was also pretty much entirely self-contained… there were a few loose ends, its true, and I have discovered that there are in fact two more books in the series forthcoming, making it a full trilogy (sorry Darcy!). The next book is due in August of this year, and the final book is finishing up now, and should be out by next summer.

Anyway, the book was quite fun. It has the feel of Ocean’s Eleven (or Twelve, or Thirteen, etc., etc.), in that the main characters collect a group of specialists in order to pull off a rather complicated plan against the opposition. The system of magic is quite well thought out (just as it was in Elantris) and rather novel for fantasy works I can bring to mind right now. I’ll leave those secrets for your own discovery, however.

In looking for other books by the author, Brandon Sanderson, I discovered his website (I just linked to it! Jeez!) and thence the books mentioned above as forthcoming. But, the other very cool thing I have discovered on this site is the author’s commentaries on his own books! Apparently, after he has written them, and the publisher’s editors have read them and made suggested changes, he has to reread them and make sure all corrections were, well, correct. So, as this could be rather boring, he writes down what he was thinking about each chapter, how we was trying to portray the characters, and missteps he took along the way. It’s very much like a director’s commentary on a movie. Each chapter of each book he has published has at least one writeup, if not more, along these lines. He releases them in the weeks following the initial publication of the book.

Well, anyway, I thought it was cool. I wish more authors would do so, as sometimes, when I am reading some books, I really wonder what the heck the guy was thinking when he wrote that!

That’s all the update I have for now. I rather think both Elantris and Mistborn are worth reading.

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An odd recollection of childhood

Posted by me on Sunday, the 10th day of June, anno domini 2007 at 11:24 PM, local time.

As you may have read, my air conditioning is not presently working, and today was rather hot out anyway, which would have been enough to make the temperature in my apartment rather uncomfortable. However, as today was apparently Jeremiah's cooking day, it was soon pushing 90 degrees or so at its worst point. Some of my friends further south (or from further south, anyway) may laugh at my discomfort in such a chilly temperature, but I assure you I almost died.

But that is really only a segue into what I was planning to write about. To combat this heat, I brought up a little fan I had obtained while in college for such situations and turned it on myself whilst I read. When growing up, we never had any air conditioning, and each summer was such a painful season for this reason that I can only assume my present dislike of the season stems from that. We always had fans going throughout the house to keep us as close to comfortable as was possible. While I sat reading in my chair, with some piano music playing in the background, constantly fighting for the aural spectrum with this simple little fan whirrring about, I was strongly reminded of my childhood summers, when I would similarly read at night with fans being heard everywhere, and my sister practicing her piano in the other room.

It is often strange to have such recollections, but pleasant. Well, I should get back to reading. It seems there is nothing else that can really be done under such conditions :)

P.S.: It looks funny, but is obviously frequently used enough to get past the spellchecker. I can only assume that it is a correct spelling: whirrring. (With three 'r's.) Or perhaps my spellchecker is off. I will assume instead that it is a correct spelling :-) That is far more fun to do!

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